To Optimize Learning

The most important
educational goal
confronting higher
education in the 21st
century is to optimize
learning by students and
by society in general:
to educate a growing, increasingly diverse set of
learners to be effective and fulfilled as workers and
citizens, capable of meeting new challenges they
will encounter throughout their lives. To optimize
learning means setting forward-looking expectations
for universities and colleges, conveying the need to
educate graduates for living effectively in a complex
world, in terms of personal health as well as financial
and social well-being. Optimized learning is that which
helps strengthen democratic and civic institutions
in the nation. This conception of learning extends
beyond the education of students in classrooms
to include higher education’s impact on societal
organizations, businesses, corporations, and valuebased
organizations—all
made possible by a
greatly expanded sense
of higher education’s
educational mission. To
optimize learning entails
an increased sense of
responsibility—within
the nation at large, its
individual states, and
in public and private
institutions of higher
education—to achieve
learning outcomes and
meet educational standards
that address growing
societal needs.

For institutions, optimizing learning means taking
responsibility for learning and substantially raising the
number of those who persist and succeed in programs
of education. It means closing gaps in achievement
without lowering the bar for results. In many cases
succeeding in this challenge will entail rethinking the
nature and content of degrees as well as their timing
and mode of delivery. Optimized learning requires that
institutions proceed beyond widely accepted proxies
for educational excellence—which focus heavily on
selectivity and resources—and set standards that assess
how well institutions meet the needs of communities
and the people who live in them. For states, it means
rewarding behavior that fulfills public purposes. Finally,
optimizing learning means that higher education
comes to see itself working in conjunction with K–12
schools to achieve
shared educational
purposes—and in
particular, to reduce
leaks in the education
pipeline. Though higher
education cannot be
placed in a position of
direct responsibility for
the success of primary
and secondary education
in this country, colleges
and universities can
increase the likelihood
of optimized learning
to the extent they see
their own purposes as
aligned with those of
K–12 schools and work
to achieve those common
educational ends.